A marketplace connecting learners to community tutors and professional teachers across 150+ languages, booked by the lesson.
Four questions, answered for both products. Neither column is empty.
What it is
italki
A marketplace connecting learners to community tutors and professional teachers across 150+ languages, booked by the lesson.
SpeakMotive
Places that connect you to a paid teacher or community tutor, usually by the lesson.
What it costs
italki
Pay per lesson. Community tutors are commonly quoted around $4 to $20 an hour and professional teachers around $10 to $40.
SpeakMotive
Free. No paid tier, no lesson credits, no per-minute billing.
Best at
italki
A real person whose job is to correct you, at a price that can be very low, and a supply of teachers for languages where free exchange partners are almost impossible to find.
SpeakMotive
It is free, so it covers the practice hours a paid lesson cannot afford to, and it needs no teacher: the counterpart is another learner or a native speaker doing the same swap. Use it alongside a tutor rather than instead of one.
Choose it if
italki
You want structured correction, a plan, homework, or a language with too few speakers online to swap with - and you are willing to pay for it.
SpeakMotive
An account is required. Calls and rooms sit behind sign-in - there is no anonymous queue, which is the trade for having block, waiting-room and mute-all moderation.
You want structured correction, a plan, homework, or a language with too few speakers online to swap with - and you are willing to pay for it.
A real person whose job is to correct you, at a price that can be very low, and a supply of teachers for languages where free exchange partners are almost impossible to find.
It is free, so it covers the practice hours a paid lesson cannot afford to, and it needs no teacher: the counterpart is another learner or a native speaker doing the same swap. Use it alongside a tutor rather than instead of one.
1-on-1 voice or video, plus topic rooms that hold up to 20 people in voice, video or text.
You want to be taught. Nothing here replaces a teacher, and a free exchange partner will not mark your grammar systematically. That is the one case this page is not trying to talk you out of.
Source for every italki claim on this page
https://www.italki.com/en/blog/italki-vs-camblyLast checked
2026-09-22
Competitor pricing and features change. If something on this page is out of date, that is a bug, and the data lives in one file rather than in the page itself.
Pay per lesson. Community tutors are commonly quoted around $4 to $20 an hour and professional teachers around $10 to $40.
A tutor is paid to correct you, and the correction is the product you buy. Our counterpart is a peer doing the same swap in the other direction, so the feedback is looser and the practice runs longer - a worse deal if what you want is marking, a better one if what you want is hours. The catch, stated plainly: You want to be taught. Nothing here replaces a teacher, and a free exchange partner will not mark your grammar systematically.
You want structured correction, a plan, homework, or a language with too few speakers online to swap with - and you are willing to pay for it.
Pick italki when this matters most to you: A real person whose job is to correct you, at a price that can be very low, and a supply of teachers for languages where free exchange partners are almost impossible to find. Pick SpeakMotive when it does not: It is free, so it covers the practice hours a paid lesson cannot afford to, and it needs no teacher: the counterpart is another learner or a native speaker doing the same swap. Use it alongside a tutor rather than instead of one.
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